It Figures

$3 Million

Settlement reached between City of Boston the parents of a Boston Celtics fan who stopped breathing and later died after police took him into custody during the 2008 NBA championship celebrations. David Woodman, 22, died 11 days after police took him into custody on June 18, 2008. His parents blamed their son’s death on police. An investigation found that officers acted reasonably and concluded the death was caused by a pre-existing heart condition.

$13 Million

Award upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court in favor of Michelle DiLieto, who sued her gynecologist and Yale University School of Medicine claiming doctors misdiagnosed her with cancer and performed an unnecessary hysterectomy. DiLieto had a hysterectomy in 1995 after being diagnosed with a potentially fatal cancer of the uterus. She said doctors failed to tell her she didn’t have cancer and led her to believe she did. Yale said it was disappointed with the decision.

$2.3 Million

Amount of judgment overturned by a New York appeals court in the case of a man hit by a New York City subway train after drunkenly falling on the tracks. The court found that jurors didn’t have enough evidence for their conclusion that the motorman could have stopped the train before it hit Dustin Dibble in April 2006. The 26-year-old said he was too drunk to remember how he ended up on the tracks at Manhattan’s Union Square station. He lost part of his right leg. Jurors found Dibble bore some responsibility, but put most of the blame on New York City Transit. Dibble’s lawyer, Andrew Smiley, says he believes the appeals court improperly interpreted facts in the case. The transit agency says it’s pleased with the ruling.

110

Number of plaintiffs involved in a seven-week trial in Upstate New York that found a construction company partially liable for the collapse of a newly built dam – and the resulting millions of dollars in damage to properties in Fort Ann in 2005. About 200 homes were evacuated after the dam crumbled at the south end of a mile-long pond north of Albany. Jurors found Kubricky Construction Co. 45 percent liable. The rest of the liability was spread among HTE Northeast Engineering at 27 percent, the town of Fort Ann at 23 percent and Atlantic Testing Laboratories Ltd. at 5 percent. It hasn’t yet been determined how much the plaintiffs are entitled to. Appeals are expected in the ruling.